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e  Postal  Penal  Code 


ilackstone  Legal  Training  Lecture 


Blackstone  Institute,  Chicago 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE 


BY 


HENRY  H.  JNGERSOLL,  M.A.,  LL.D. 

LATE   DEAN,   LAW   SCHOOL,   UNIVERSITY   OF  TENNESSEE 


One  of  a  Series  of  Lectures  Especially  Prepared 
for  the  Blackstone  Institute 


BLACKSTONE    INSTITUTE 
CHICAGO 


Copyright,  1919,  by  Blackstone  Institute 


T 

In  454 


HENRY  H.  INGERSOLL 


, 


HENRY  H.  INGERSOLL 

The  recent  death  of  Mr.  Ingersoll  deprived  the 
American  Bar  of  one  of  its  most  brilliant  members 
and  the  state  of  Tennessee  of  one  of  her  fore- 
most citizens.  His  long  career  as  a  lawyer,  states- 
man and  educator  has  made  his  name  familiar 
throughout  the  United  States. 

He  was  born  in  Oberlin,  Ohio,  January  20,  1844. 
He  attended  Oberlin  College  and  graduated  from 
Yale  University  in  1863.  He  studied  law  in  Cin- 
cinnati and  was  admitted  to  the  Tennessee  bar  in 
1865. 

For  a  number  of  years  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  Assist- 
ant Attorney  General  of  the  State  of  Tennessee  and 
in  1879  was  appointed  a  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  state,  serving  in  that  capacity  until 
1880.  In  1884  he  was  appointed  a  special  judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court.  He  acted  as  Dean  of  the  Law 
Faculty  of  the  University  of  Tennessee  from  1891 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death  and  his  faithful  service 
and  scholarly  mind  made  the  school  one  of  the  fore- 
most educational  institutions  in  the  South. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  has  occupied  many  positions  of 
honor  and  trust.  In  1887  and  1888  he  was  Presi- 
dent of  the  Tennessee  State  Bar  Association,  and 
from  1907  to  1912  was  Vice-President  of  the 
American  Bar  Association.  Besides  acting  as  Dean 
of  the  University  of  Tennessee  Law  School,  he  was 
appointed  a  Trustee  of  Emory  and  Henry  College 
and  the  University  of  the  South. 

Probably  Mr.  Ingersoll  will  be  best  remembered 
as  an  author.  He  edited  "Barton's  Suits  in 
Equity";  was  the  author  of  "Ingersoll  on  Public 
Corporations";  "Municipal  Corporations"  and 
"Towns"  in  Cyc  and  "Municipal  Corporations" 
in  Modern  American  Law. 

An  experience  of  fifty  years  in  the  legal  profes- 
sion makes  Mr.  Ingersoll 's  writings  of  intense  inter- 
est to  the  student  of  law.  His  untarnished  reputa- 
tion on  the  bench,  his  scholarly  accomplishments, 
and  his  devotion  to  the  profession  which  he  made 
his  life 's  work  furnish  an  illustrious  example  to  the 
student  who  aspires  to  the  highest  standards  of 
citizenship. 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE 

By 
HENBY  H.  INGEESOLL,  M.A.,  LL.D. 

INTRODUCTION. 

The  sovereign  power  of  the  United  States  ,is  no- 
where more  manifest,  more  pervasive,  and  more  com- 
plete than  in  the  control  of  the  postal  service  of 
our  country,  supreme  as  it  is  not  only  in  the  great 
post  offices  of  the  important  business  centers,  and 
in  the  big  postal  railway  cars  that  handle  every  day 
millions  of  letters,  cards,  and  parcels,  but  also  in  the 
smaller  post  offices  of  the  lesser  cities  and  country 
towns,  in  the  rural  free  deliveries  to  villages  and 
remote  settlements,  and  even. in  the  horseback  mail 
routes  over  the  mountains  and  plains.  Here  we  see 
the  importance,  the  efficiency,  and  the  ubiquity  of 
this  omnipresent  Federal  power! 

The  postal  service  of  the  United  States  reaches 
to  the  farthest  boundaries  thereof,  and  is  intended 
to  serve,  and  does  serve,  potentially,  every  one  of 
the  inhabitants.  It  operates  in  every  state  and 
county  and  district  and  town,  on  the  great  railway 
lines,  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year, 
days  and  nights  together,  without  ceasing,  and  also 
in  the  lesser  cities  and  towns,  and  through  the  rural 
districts  every  day,  Sunday  only  excepted.  Not 
only  does  it  carry  your  letters  and  cards,  your  little 

5 


6          BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 

parcels  and  books,  your  newspapers,  pamphlets  and 
magazines,  but,  recently,  in  addition  to  things  writ- 
ten, printed  and  pictured,  the  Parcel  Post  has 
extended  the  service  into  a  new  field,  and  so  effect- 
ually is  it  fulfilling  its  promises,  that  old  express 
companies  which  have  been  serving  us  for  fifty  years 
or  more  have  closed  their  offices  and  published  to 
the  world  that  they  cannot  compete  with  Uncle  Sam. 
Undoubtedly  the  outcome  of  this  new  business  ven- 
ture by  the  Federal  Government  is  to  be  the  absorp- 
tion by  the  postal  service  of  the  express  business 
of  the  United  States.  For  even  now  post  offices  and 
post  roads  handle  not  only  the  letters,  cards,  news- 
papers, magazines,  and  other  written  and  printed 
matter,  as  for  a  full  century  they  have  been  doing, 
but  also  innumerable  small  parcels  weighing  not 
over  fifty  pounds  and  of  convenient  bulk  which 
people  wish  to  ship  short  distances  to  one  another; 
and  the  great  department  stores  of  the  cities,  in  com- 
pany with  many  others,  already  send  goods,  wares, 
and  merchandise  in  parcels  of  twenty  pounds  to  any 
state  of  the  Union. 

WHAT  IS  THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE? 

This  great  postal  system,  a  service  pervasive  and 
perpetual,  operated  for  the  public  welfare,  the  Fed- 
eral Government  regulates  and  protects  by  a  Postal 
Penal  Code,  which  is  Chapter  8  of  the  United  States 
Penal  Code,  approved  March  4, 1909,  and  embracing 
said  Code  from  sections  179  to  231,  inclusive.  The 
drawing  up  of  this  Postal  Penal  Code  was  the  last 
of  the  measures  of  President  Roosevelt's  very  active 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE  7 

administration,  and  served  the  purpose  of  bringing 
together,  revising  and  codifying  the  various  and 
complex  criminal  postal  laws  of  th.e  United  States, 
compiling  them  for  the  convenient  and  ready  refer- 
ence of  the  courts  and  the  legal  profession. 

To  a  greater  extent  than  any  other  department 
of  our  diversified  system  of  government,  the  Federal 
branch  is  centralized  and  efficient.  It  is  therefore 
more  generally  respected  and  obeyed.  It  is  the  firm 
conviction  of  the  Federal  Government  and  its  officers 
(and  the  same  should  be  true  of  all  other  branches  of 
government,  municipal  and  state  as  well  as  Federal) 
that  laws  are  enacted  to  be  obeyed  and  enforced. 
As  a  result,  the  Federal  Government  commands  the 
especial  respect  of  the  people  because  of  its  unyield- 
ing policy  in  the  enforcement,  by  its  officers,  of  its 
revenue  and  postal  laws. 

Comparatively  few  persons  come  into  personal 
relation  with  the  revenue  laws  of  the  United  States, 
but  it  is  not  saying  too  much  to  assert  that  in  every 
year  fully  one-half  the  people  in  the  United  States, 
in  one  way  or  another,  use  the  postal  service.  Yet 
it  is  probable  that  not  one  person  in  a  hundred  ever 
saw  or  read  the  Postal  Penal  Code  of  the  United 
States,  or  has  any  other  than  the  most  general 
notions  of  what  is  or  might  be  an  offense  against  the 
postal  service. 

Knowledge  of  the  Code  Important. 
An  American  citizen  does  not  require  a  printed 
statute  to  know  that  it  would  be  unlawful  for  him 
to  rob  a  mail  carrier,  to  break  into  and  enter  a  post 


8          BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 

office,  to  hold  up  a  postal  car,  to  steal  a  letter  or  any 
matter  intrusted  to  the  postal  service  for  carriage 
and  delivery.  All  these  things,  and  other  similar 
unlawful  acts,  were  offenses  at  the  common  law 
which  we  have  been  taught  from  our  childhood  to 
respect  and  obey.  For  in  a  general  way  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  if,  by  state  law,  an  act  is  a  crime  against 
a  fellow  citizen's  person  or  property,  the  same  act, 
if  committed  against  a  postal  employee,  postal  prop- 
erty, or  the  postal  service,  is  a  crime  under  the 
Federal  law,  and  anyone  who  commits  such  a  crime 
will,  inevitably,  come  into  intimate  association  with 
a  Federal  marshal  or  his  deputies. 

But  Uncle  Sam  protects  his  postal  service  by  many 
statutory  provisions  which  are  not  commonly  known 
and  are  not  within  the  purview  of  the  common  law ; 
yet  a  violation  of  these  statutory  provisions  will 
subject  the  offender,  whether  he  knows  them  or  not, 
to  prosecution  and  consequent  acquaintance  with  the 
aforesaid  Federal  marshals.  Therefore,  it  is  highly 
important  that  all  citizens  shall  have  some  knowledge 
of  these  special  laws  and  of  the  grounds  upon  which 
they  rest,  lest  unintentionally  they  violate  some  of 
these  statutory  rules  which  are  made  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  great  postal  service  of  their  country. 

PROVISIONS  AS  TO  OBSCENE  MATTER. 

Section  211  of  the  Postal  Penal  Code  is  intended  to 
prohibit  obscenity  in  whatever  form  or  method  it 
may  be  introduced  into  the  mails.  Therefore,  it  for- 
bids the  mailing  or  conveyance  by  post  or  delivery 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE  S 

by  any  carrier  or  from  any  post  office  of  all  printed 
matter  and  publications  which  are  obscene  or  cal- 
culated to  encourage,  stimulate  or  excite  sexual  im- 
propriety or  excess.  Such  prohibited  matter  is,  by 
said  section  of  the  Code,  classified  as  follows: 

1.  Any  obscene,  lewd  or  lascivious  writing,  print 
or  other  publication,  and  every  vile  book,  pamphlet, 
picture,  paper  or  letter  of  an  indecent  character, 
and  every  article  or  thing  designed  to  prevent  con- 
ception or  produce  abortion  or  for  any  indecent  or 
immoral  use; 

2.  Every  article,  instrument,  substance,  drug,  or 
medicine  advertised  in  a  manner  calculated  to  invite 
its  use  for  preventing  conception,  or  producing  abor- 
tion, or  for  any  indecent  or  Immoral  purpose; 

3.  Every  written  or  printed  card,  letter,  circular, 
pamphlet  or  book,  telling  where  or  how  or  from 
whom  or  by  what  means  any  of  these  forbidden 
things  or  articles  may  be  obtained,  or  where  or  by 
whom  an  abortion  will  be  performed  or  attempted, 
or  conception  prevented,  whether  the  same  is  sealed 
or  unsealed; 

4.  Any  letter,  packet  or  package  containing  any 
filthy,  vile  or  indecent  thing,  device  or  substance; 

5.  Every  paper,  writing,  advertisement  or  repre- 
sentation that  any  particular  instrument  or  drug 
may  be  used  or  applied  to  prevent  conception  or  pro- 
duce abortion; 

6.  Every  description,  written  or  printed,  which  is 
calculated  to  induce  or  incite  a  person  to  use  such 
instrument,  drug  or  medicine  so  as  to  effect  either  of 
these  purposes. 


10        BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 
Purpose  of  the  Provisions. 

The  obvious  purpose  of  all  these  provisions  is  to 
prevent  the  use  of  the  United  States  mails  in  dis- 
seminating matter  designed  to  corrupt  the  public 
morals,  or  to  encourage  sexual  immorality.  Matter 
has  been  declared  by  the  courts  to  be  obscene  if  it 
even  tends  toward  sexual  immorality  or  licentious 
conduct.  The  Federal  courts  have  pronounced  a 
publication  obscene  although  there  was  but  a  single 
sentence  of  that  character  in  the  whole  book;  also, 
although  there  was  not  even  a  single  sentence  or 
passage  of  that  character,  if  the  general  effect  and 
tendency  was  to  excite  the  sexual  desire. 

Presence  of  Seal  No  Defense. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  it  is  unlawful  to  mail  or 
convey  any  obscene  matter,  whether  printed  or  writ- 
ten, and  whether  sealed  or  unsealed.  No  amount 
of  sealing  wax  or  of  postage  prepaid  can  make  it 
lawful  to  carry  obscene  matter  in  the  mails.  It  is 
also  to  be  observed  that  it  is  equally  unlawful  know- 
ingly to  mail  such  an  article,  or  knowingly  to  carry 
it  or  convey  it  in  the  mails,  or  knowingly  to  deli ver 
or  receive  it.  The  person  guilty  of  doing  any  of 
these  acts  is  subject  to  a  fine  of  five  thousand  dollars, 
or  imprisonment  for  five  years,  or  both,  in  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  court. 

Grimm's  Case,  which  was  tried  in  St.  Louis  over 
twenty  years  ago  and  may  be  found  in  156  U.  S.  64, 
well  illustrates  the  danger  to  any  citizen  of  trifling 
with  these  postal  statutes  intended  to  prevent  the 
abuse  of  the  mails.  Grimm  was  a  photographer 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE  11 

who  advertised  fancy  pictures  for  sale  at  two  dollars 
a  dozen,  or  twelve  dollars  a  hundred.  He  was  in- 
dicted for  placing  letters  in  the  post  office  written  to 
a  person  at  Richmond,  Indiana,  who  had  addressed 
him  under  an  assumed  name  asking  for  information 
about  these  fancy  photographs.  This  person  was  a 
Government  detective.  When  Grimm  was  indicted 
he  made  strenuous  defense  that  his  letter  did  not 
contain  in  itself  any  obscene,  lewd  or  lascivious  mat- 
ter. This  was  conceded  by  the  court;  but,  said 
Justice  Brewer,  it  was  intended  to  convey,  and  did 
convey,  information  as  to  where  fancy  pictures  could 
be  found  and  obtained,  and  for  that  Grimm  was 
indicted,  although  the  special  name  or  obscene  char- 
acter of  the  fancy  picture  was  not  specified  in  the 
letter. 

As  a  final  defense  it  was  objected  that  Grimm  was 
induced  by  the  Government,  through  its  detective 
agent,  to  write  this  letter,  that  he  addressed  it  to  a 
fictitious  person,  and  that  a  fictitious  person  could 
give  no  information  to  anyone.  The  answer  of  Jus- 
tice Brewer  is  in  these  words:  "The  law  was  act- 
ually violated  by  the  defendant.  He  placed  letters 
in  the  post  office  which  conveyed  information  where 
obscene  matter  could  be  obtained;  and  he  placed 
them  there  with  a  view  to  give  said  information  to 
the  person  who  should  actually  receive  those  letters, 
no  matter  what  his  name,  and  the  fact  that  the  person 
who  wrote  under  these  assumed  names  and  received 
his  letters  was  a  Government  detective  in  no  manner 
detracts  from  his  guilt." 

This  Grimm  Case  may  well  be  called  a  test  case 


12        BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 

on  this  subject  of  obscenity  in  the  mails,  for  it  has 
been  followed  in  nearly  all  the  District  Courts  of  the 
United  States  during  the  past  twenty  years.  It 
shows  very  plainly  the  resolution  of  the  Federal 
courts  to  enforce  this  Federal  statute  according  to 
its  plain  terms  and  thus  prevent  the  abuse  of  the 
mails  by  sending  through  them  anything  obscene, 
lewd  or  lascivious,  or,  as  well  defined  in  one  case, 
"  anything  having  a  tendency  to  excite  lustful 
thoughts  and  desires." 

In  a  Virginia  case,  one  Martin  was  held  guilty, 
under  this  statute,  for  writing  a  letter  to  an  unmar- 
ried woman,  proposing  a  clandestine  trip  to  a  neigh- 
boring town  to  return  the  following  morning,  he  to 
pay  her  expenses  and  five  dollars  besides — this  being 
an  obscene  letter  within  the  meaning  of  the  statute 
because  of  its  obvious  purpose  to  purchase  sexual 
intercourse. 

There  are  decisions  of  the  United  States  courts, 
rendered  more  than  twenty-five  years  ago,  declaring 
that  no  person  can  be  indicted  for  sending  obscene 
written  matter  in  a  sealed  envelope.  But  in  the 
Grimm  Case,  above  referred  to,  and  in  the  Andrews 
Case,  162  U.  S.  420,  the  meaning  of  the  Act  of  Con- 
gress of  1888  is  declared  unequivocally  by  the  courts 
to  be  that  "the  mailing  of  a  private,  sealed  letter" 
containing  obscene  matter,  in  an  envelope  on  which 
nothing  appears  but  the  name  and  address,  is  an 
offense  within  this  statute.  In  other  words,  carrying 
any  vile,  filthy  or  obscene  matter,  whether  printed  or 
written,  sealed  or  unsealed,  whether  plainly  ex- 
pressed or  obviously  implied,  is  a  criminal  act  under 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE  13 

the  laws  of  the  United  States  as  now  construed  and 
applied,  and  will  subject  the  guilty  person  to  severe 
punishment. 

What  Is  Considered  Obscene? 

Illustrations  of  the  application  of  this  statute  are 
found  in  many  cases  in  the  Federal  Reporter,  which 
show  the  undoubted  tendency  of  Federal  courts  to 
exclude  from  the  mails  all  filthy  and  obscene  matter, 
whether  sealed  or  unsealed.  Thus  in  the  James  Case 
from  the  Southern  District  of  California,  James  was 
indicted  for  mailing  a  newspaper  in  which  was 
printed  an  article  entitled  "Ripe  and  Unripe 
Women. "  This  article  described  the  physical  ap- 
pearance of  the  "ripe  woman "  and  set  forth  the 
writer's  expression  of  the  thoughts  and  passions 
excited  by  beholding  her;  it  contained  also  a  descrip- 
tion in  coarse,  rude  terms  of  the  "unripe  woman," 
referring  to  unnatural  practices  and  crimes  which 
had  caused  her  immaturity  and  repulsiveness.  The 
same  newspaper  also  published  a  drug  store's  adver- 
tisements, one  of  which  extolled  the  merits  of  a  cer- 
tain remedy  for  venereal  diseases,  while  another, 
praising  a  certain  line  of  goods,  was  addressed  "To 
the  Ladies  of  the  Tenderloin  District."  This  paper 
was  held  by  the  court  to  contain  obscene  matter  such 
as  was  excluded  from  the  mails  by  the  Postal  Penal 
Code,  and  such  as  rendered  the  publisher  liable  to 
the  penalty  of  the  statute. 

Another  illustrative  case  of  obscenity  is  presented 
by  the  indictment  of  one  Chesman  for  depositing  in 
the  mail  a  pamphlet  entitled  "Prof.  Harris'  New  Dis- 


14        BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 

covery  for  the  Radical  Cure  of  Spermatorrhea  and 
Impotency,  with  the  Anatomy  and  Physiology  of  the 
Generative  Organs  Illustrated  and  the  Science  of  a 
Radical  Cure."  This  publication  was  declared  in 
the  indictment  to  be  so  indecent  that  it  would  be 
offensive  to  the  court  and  improper  to  be  placed  on 
the  records  thereof.  Construing  a  motion  to  quash 
this  indictment,  Judge  McCrary  said,  in  responding 
to  the  insistence  of  counsel  that  the  publication  was 
of  a  medical  character  and  consisted  chiefly  of  ex- 
tracts from  standard  medical  works:  "There  are 
many  things  contained  in  standard  works  which, 
printed  in  pamphlet  form  and  spread  broadcast  in 
the  community  by  being  sent  through  mails  to  per- 
sons of  all  classes,  including  boys  and  girls,  would 
be  highly  indecent  and  obscene. "  A  recent  case  on 
what  is  considered  obscene  is  U.  S.  v.  Kennerly,  209 
Fed.  Rep.  119. 

What  Is  Considered  Indecent? 

In  the  Davis  Case,  found  in  the  Federal  Reporter, 
volume  38,  page  326,  Judge  Hammond  sustained  the 
verdict  of  a  jury  finding  a  defendant  guilty  because 
of  his  using  vulgar  language  "  which  shocks  the  ear 
and  common  sense  of  men  as  an  indecency."  At 
the  same  time  the  judge  says  that  the  defendant  is 
not  guilty  under  this  statute  for  using  the  words, 
"You  can  order  car  back,  and  be  damned,"  for  this 
is  only  profanity.  But  still  he  was  inclined  to  the 
opinion  that  the  two  sentences,  "You  are  sharp,  all 
of  you  are  on  the  beat,"  and  "Tell  that  Radical  to 
send  my  book  back  as  he  agreed,"  were,  in  this  con- 
nection, opprobrious,  scurrilous  and  defamatory. 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE  15 

In  a  similar  case  there  were  written  upon  a  postal 
card  the  following  words:  "Mr.  Editor:  I  thought 
that  you  was  publishing  a  paper  for  the  Wheel,  but 
I  see  nothing  but  rotten  democracy.  I  am  a  repub- 
lican and  a  Wheeler,  and  you  can  take  your  paper 
and  your  democracy  and  go  to  Hell  with  it."  Judge 
Hammond  declined  to  instruct  the  jury  peremptorily 
that  this  writing  was  scurrilous,  but  he  left  that  ques- 
tion to  the  jury  to  decide.  The  jury  found  the  de- 
fendant guilty  and  the  verdict  was  not  disturbed  by 
the  court.  However,  it  had  been  previously  held 
by  this  court  that  in  political  campaigns  it  was  not 
indictable  under  this  Act  to  use,  in  regard  to  per- 
sons, either  in  writing  or  print,  the  words,  "Aboli- 
tionist," "Black Republican,"  "Copperhead,"  " Car- 
pet-Bagger,"  "Scalawag,"  "Rebel  Democracy," 
"Bourbon,"  "Mugwump,"  and  "Tariff  Robber." 

In  Kentucky,  Judge  Barr  quashed  an  information 
under  this  statute  for  mailing  a  postal  card  contain- 
ing the  following  words:  "Dear  Sir:  Your  postal 
card  has  fully  developed  you  to  me  as  a  damned 
scoundrel  and  rascal,  and  I  beg  that  all  transactions 
in  a  business  manner  cease  between  us  and  no  further 
business  relations  ever  exist."  The  substance  of 
Judge  Barr's  decision  was  that  while  this  postal 
card  might  be  held  as  possibly  profane,  it  was  cer- 
tainly not  indecent  or  obscene. 


PROVISION  AS  TO  DEFAMATORY  MATTER. 

By  the  same  section  of  the  Postal  Penal  Code 
which  forbids  the  mailing  of  obscene  matter  is  also 


16        BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 

forbidden  the  mailing  of  matter  "defamatory  or 
threatening  in  its  character,  or  calculated  by  the 
terms  or  manner  or  style  of  display,  and  obviously 
intended  to  reflect  injuriously  upon  the  character  or 
conduct  of  another. "  This  offense  seems  to  have 
given  the  courts  more  trouble  than  the  offenses  of 
obscenity  and  indecency. 

Purpose  of  This  Provision 

The  postal  service  is  not  to  be  used  for  the  purpose 
of  defaming  or  slandering  or  libeling  a  citizen.  It 
is  not  to  be  a  vehicle  of  the  hatred,  malice  or  ill-will 
of  any  citizen ;  and  whoever  violates  this  prohibitory 
clause  of  the  postal  laws  is  punished,  just  as  in  the 
case  of  mailing  obscene  matter,  by  imprisonment  for 
five  years,  or  a  fine  of  five  thousand  dollars,  or  both, 
in  the  discretion  of  the  court. 

What  Is  Not  Considered  Defamatory? 

Two  cases  are  illustrative  of  what  the  courts  con- 
sider not  to  be  within  the  provisions  of  this  law. 
They  are  the  Doran  Case,  in  Minnesota,  and  the  Jar- 
vis  Case,  in  Washington,  reported  respectively  in 
32  and  59  Federal  Reporter.  Now,  the  plain  purpose 
of  the  statute  is  to  forbid  only  the  use  of  postal  cards 
or  envelopes  for  any  defamatory  purpose.  There 
is  no  reference  in  it  to  enclosed  matter,  which  has 
been  sealed  up.  In  the  Doran  Case,  the  defendant 
was  charged  with  having  deposited  in  the  mail  en- 
velopes and  a  postal  card  upon  which  were  the  fol- 
lowing endorsements : 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE 


17 


(Envelope.) 

Carry  me  back  in  due 
time  to The  Regu- 
lator, for  publication, 
32  South  Washington, 
Minneapolis,  Minn. 


Exhibit  A. 

Persons  who  want  us 
to  collect  from  Dead 
Beats  should  send  their 
accounts  to  32  Wash- 
ington avenue,  South, 
Minneapolis,  Minn. 

Send  five  cents  to  in- 
sure postage  for  a  large 
letter  to  the  critter. 

Mr.  D.  L.  Comly,  8th 
&  Jackson  Sts.,  City. 


(Envelope.)     Exhibit  B. 
Return  in  10  days  to 


The   Collector  of 


Bad  Debts,  32  Wash- 
ington Av.,  S.,  Minne- 
apolis, Minn. 

I  am  looking  for  an 
Old  Bill. 

The  Dead-Beat  Col- 
lector hires  me  to  look 
them  up. 

(Postal  Card.) 


(  Stamp.  ) 
(  St.  Paul,  Minn.  ) 
(  July  18,  '87.  ) 
(  3  P.  M.  ) 
D.  L.  Comly, 

Cor.  8th  &  Jackson, 
9  Corlies,  Chapman  & 
Drake. 
City. 


Exhibit  C. 

July  18, 1887. 

Sir:  Considering  how  near  you  can  come  to  fill 
the  bill,  I  have  decided  to  post  you  on  all  the  Dead- 
Beat  lists  I  know  of  in  the  city,  and  have  accordingly 
given  the  different  agencies  a  chance  at  you. 

F.  B.  Doran. 


18        BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 

It  is  not  easy  for  a  lawyer,  or  even  an  unprofes- 
sional person,  to  see  how  this  matter  was  not  calcu- 
lated, or  obviously  intended,  to  reflect  injuriously 
upon  the  character  of  the  addressee.  But  Judge 
Nelson  of  the  Minnesota  District  heard  a  petition 
for  habeas  corpus  which  admitted  the  writing  and 
sending  of  this  card  and  these  envelopes,  and  dis- 
charged the  petitioner  upon  the  ground  that  the 
mailing  of  these  things  afforded  no  ground  for  crim- 
inal prosecution ! 

Must  Be  Intended  to  Reflect  Injuriously.  In 
the  Jarvis  Case,  the  charge  was  that  an  envelope 
was  addressed  to  a  certain  person  and  put  into 
the  mails  upon  which,  following  the  name  of  the 
person,  were  the  following  words:  "Room  32,  Pease 
House,  Front  St.,  City,  The  Notorious."  A  demurrer 
to  the  indictment  was  sustained  by  Judge  Hanford, 
upon  the  ground  that  these  words  were  not  obviously 
intended  to  reflect  injuriously  upon  the  character 
or  conduct  of  another;  for,  while  " notorious"  might 
possibly  have  been  applied  to  the  addressee,  it  might 
also  refer  to  the  Pease  House  or  to  the  city;  but 
even  if  intended  to  apply  to  the  addressee,  it  was 
still  not  defamatory,  but,  on  the  contrary,  might  be 
complimentary,  as  a  "notorious"  wit  or  a  "notori- 
ous" orator  or  actor.  Therefore,  the  indictment 
was  quashed. 

In  the  Elliott  Case,  51  Fed.  Rep.  807,  it  was  held 
that  a  postal  card  containing  a  notice  that  rent  was 
due  and  unpaid,  and,  if  it  was  not  paid  by  a  certain 
date  the  matter  would  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  an 
officer,  is  not  defamatory  or  threatening. 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE  19 

What  Is  Considered  Defamatory? 

Yet,  in  the  Vermont  District,  it  was  held  that  it 
was  unlawful  to  mail  a  letter  enclosed  in  an  envelope 
on  which  the  words  "Excelsior  Collection  Agency" 
were  printed  in  very  large,  full-faced,  capital  let- 
ters, occupying  more  than  half  the  envelope.  Also, 
in  the  Connecticut  District,  it  was  held  unlawful  to 
mail  a  postal  card  containing  the  allegations:  "You 
have  promised  and  do  not  perform.  I  see  very 
plainly  you  do  not  intend  to  pay  any  attention  to 
my  letters  or  your  debts." 

It  was  likewise  held  unlawful  for  a  collection 
agency  to  issue  a  paper  containing  on  its  first  page 
a  motto  showing  that  its  purpose  was  to  collect 
debts,  and  containing  a  notice  warning  the  public 
against  persons  alleged  to  have  failed  to  pay  their 
debts  or  asking  for  information  as  to  such  persons. 
Unlawful  also  was  a  postal  card  mailed  by  a  creditor 
to  his  debtor  which  demanded  payment  of  a  note, 
and  added:  "You  have  been  fighting  time  all  along. 
I  will  garnishee  and  foreclose.  But  I  dislike  to  do 
this  if  you  will  be  only  half -white."  Similarity  it 
was  held  unlawful  to  mail  a  postal  card  demanding 
payment  of  a  debt,  and  stating  that  "if  it  is  not 
paid  at  once  we  shall  place  the  same  with  our  lawyer 
for  collection." 

These  last  two  rulings  were  made  in  Missouri.  In 
Pennsylvania  the  Federal  District  Court  held  that 
the  sending  by  a  collection  agency  of  dunning  letters 
enclosed  in  black  envelopes  addressed  in  white  let- 
ters, the  purpose  of  which  was  universally  known 
to  post  office  employees,  was  a  violation  of  this  law. 


20    BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 

But  it  was  held  in  Wisconsin  that  it  was  not  unlaw- 
ful to  send  a  dunning  letter  in  an  unsealed  envelope 
on  which  were  printed  the  words,  "Mercantile  Pro- 
tection and  Collection  Bureau,"  in  long  primer, 
French  Clarendon  type. 

The  gist  of  this  offense  seems  to  be  placing  upon 
the  outside  of  envelopes  or  on  postal  cards  matter 
calculated  and  intended  to  reflect  injuriously  upon 
the  character  of  another.  The  reported  cases  show 
that  nearly  all  violations  of  the  law  have  been  in 
connection  with  the  efforts  of  creditors  to  collect 
from  delinquents. 

PROVISION  AS  TO  FRAUDULENT  MATTER. 

Another  section  of  the  Postal  Penal  Code  is 
directed  specially  against  the  use  of  the  mails  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  money  by  what  is  commonly 
called  the  "sawdust  swindle"  or  "counterfeit  money 
fraud"  or  the  "green  goods  business,"  or  by  any 
similar  scheme  or  artifice  contrived  to  defraud  per- 
sons by  correspondence.  Anyone  who  operates  any 
of  these  swindles  through  the  mails  by  the  use  of 
postal  card,  letter,  package,  writing,  pamphlet,  ad- 
vertisement, or  circular,  on  conviction,  may  be  fined 
one  thousand  dollars,  or  imprisoned  for  five  years, 
or  both.  The  cases  in  which  persons  have  been  con- 
victed for  this  abuse  of  the  postal  service  are  numer- 
ous, and  are  scattered  far  and  wide  over  the  United 
States.  Naturally  this  kind  of  work  is  done  in  the 
great  centers  of  population,  like  New  York,  Chicago, 
St.  Louis,  but  the  cases  are  not  confined  to  these 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE         21 

places.  A  hundred  of  them  at  least  have  found  their 
way  into  the  courts,  but  a  few  must  suffice  for  illus- 
tration. 

Convictions  Under  This  Provision. 

Henry's  Case  was  a  conviction  in  South  Carolina 
for  violating  the  statute,  and  in  that  case  it  was 
decided  that  every  separate  letter  mailed  for  this 
fraudulent  business  was  a  distinct  offense,  and  ac- 
cordingly Henry  was  convicted  and  sentenced  twice 
at  a  single  term  of  court. 

The  next  case  was  a  conviction  in  New  York  of 
a  fellow  calling  himself  Sigismund  Hess,  for  devis- 
ing and  operating  a  scheme  to  defraud,  in  the  course 
of  which  he  received,  through  the  mail  in  the  city 
of  New  York,  the  following  suspicious  letter : 

"Bonilla,  D.  T.,  2,25,  '87. 

"Dr  Sir:    If  there  is  any  money  to  be  made  at 
it,  then  count  me  in.     Send  on  all  the  confidential 
terms  you  have,  and  you  will  never  be  betrayed  by 
"Yours  truly, 

"  J.  M.  Davis. 

"Return  this  letter." 

This  communication  was  enclosed  in  an  envelope 
having  the  following  even  more  suspicious  address : 

"S.  Brunk,  Esq.,  270  West  40th  St.,  New  York  City, 
New  York,  c/o  Boot-Black." 

Elements  of  the  Crime.  Alabama  furnishes  us 
with  the  case  of  Stokes  and  eight  others,  who  were 
found  guilty  under  this  section  of  the  Code.  It 


22        BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 

was  there  held  that  the  elements  of  the  crime  were 
(1)  a  scheme  or  artifice  to  defraud,  (2)  operating 
the  scheme  by  correspondence  through  the  postal 
service,  and  (3)  either  depositing  in  or  receiving 
from  the  mails  a  letter  or  packet  in  furtherance  of 
the  scheme. 

In  Durland's  Case,  which  occurred  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, were  disclosed  the  scheme  and  methods  of  the 
Provident  Bond  and  Investment  Co.,  whose  circulars 
propounded  "a  nut  for  lottery  cranks  to  crack,"  and 
showed  an -elaborate  scheme,  to  be  advertised  and 
disseminated  through  the  mails,  to  catch  " suckers'* 
who  were  on  the  lookout  for  profit  by  such  methods 
as  this.  In  that  case  Justice  Brewer  declared  for 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  that  this 
section  of  the  Penal  Code  was  enacted  "to  protect 
the  public  against  all  intentional  efforts  to  despoil, 
and  to  prevent  the  post  office  from  being  used  to 
carry  them  into  effect." 

These  illustrative  cases  suffice  to  show  the  utter 
abhorrence  of  the  Federal  Government  for  these 
fraudulent  schemes  of  whatever  nature,  form  and 
name,  and  the  determination  of  the  courts  in  enforc- 
ing the  statute  to  protect  the  public  against  all 
scheming  and  designing  crooks.  There  is  little  or 
no  danger  of  any  innocent  persons  being  convicted 
under  this  statute,  for  one  could  scarcely  enter  into 
correspondence  with  these  lottery  or  "green  goods" 
or  counterfeit  money  crooks  without  in  some  degree 
at  least  participating  in  their  fraudulent  designs  to 
get  money  from  somebody  by  unfair  and  rascally 
means. 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE  23 

Lotteries. 

A  century  ago  lotteries  were  regarded  as  a  very 
interesting  and  appropriate  means  of  "taking  your 
chances,"  and  they  were  operated  in  nearly  every 
state  of  the  Union.  In  1835,  General  Jackson  called 
the  attention  of  Congress  to  inflammatory  appeals 
by  circulars  addressed  to  the  patrons  of  the  slave  in 
the  South,  tending  to  incite  men  to  insurrection.  It 
was  suggested  that  Congress  pass  some  act  to  pre- 
vent the  circulation  of  such  literature  through  the 
mails.  It  is  a  singular  and  interesting  bit  of  political 
history  that  this  suggestion  was  opposed  by  Mr. 
Calhoun  in  the  Senate  so  vigorously  that  the  act 
framed  for  that  purpose  did  not  pass  that  body.  The 
ground  of  Mr.  Calhoun 's  opposition  was  that  it  was 
beyond  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress,  of  its 
own  discretion  or  will,  to  pass  such  an  act  as  that; 
that  it  could  only  become  a  part  of  the  Federal 
law  upon  the  petition  or  request  of  some  sovereign 
state ! 

This  history  is  related  and  commented  upon  in 
Ex  parte  Jackson,  reported  in  96  U.  S.  Reports,  in 
which  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  pronounced 
by  Justice  Field,  was  that  "Congress  may  designate 
what  shall  be  carried  in  the  mail  and  what  excluded. " 
This  was  the  beginning  of  contention  which  grew  in 
interest  and  importance  during  the  next  fifteen 
years.  During  this  time  the  operations  of  the  Louisi- 
ana Lottery  were  widely  discussed  through  the  press. 
Finally,  in  1890,  Congress  passed  the  act  forbidding 
the  carriage,  by  mail,  of  any  letter,  circular,  card, 
or  print  concerning  any  lottery.  It  was  the  mani- 


24        BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 

fest  intention  of  the  Government  to  prevent  the 
Louisiana  Lottery  or  any  other  scheme  of  the  kind 
from  using  the  United  States  mails  for  the  purpose 
of  carrying  on  its  business. 

Constitutionality  of  These  Code  Provisions. 

Under  this  statute  Dupre  was  convicted  in  Louisi- 
ana, and  Rapier  in  Alabama ;  and  to  test  the  consti- 
tutionality of  such  legislation  three  distinguished 
lawyers  were  employed  to  bring  the  cases  before  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  directly  by 
petition  for  habeas  corpus.  They  were  Mr.  James  C. 
Carter,  Mr.  Thomas  Semmes,  and  Mr.  Hamis  Taylor. 
In  the  Rapier  Case,  reported  in  143  U.  S.  110,  are 
found  the  masterly  argument  of  Mr.  Carter  against 
the  exercise  of  this  power  by  Congress,  and  the  force- 
ful response  of  Mr.  Maury,  Assistant  Attorney  Gen- 
eral, which  is  summarized  in  the  following  sentence : 
"  Shall  Louisiana  dominate  the  Union  with  this  lot- 
tery? Power  to  prevent  it  must  exist  somewhere. 
It  does  exist  in  the  United  States,  the  Government 
of  all,  with  powers  delegated  by  all,  representing 
all." 

The  preparation  of  the  opinion  in  this  very  im- 
portant case  had  been  committed  to  Justice  Bradley, 
and  had  he  lived  he  would  doubtless  have  handed 
down  one  of  the  great  constitutional  opinions  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  as  to  the 
measure  of  Federal  power ;  but  his  illness  and  death 
intervened,  and  as  a  result  there  was  but  a  brief 
announcement,  by  Chief  Justice  Fuller,  of  the  con- 
clusion of  the  court.  Two  sentences  of  its  conclu- 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE  25 

sion  are  significant  in  this  connection:  "We  cannot 
regard  the  right  to  operate  a  lottery  as  a  funda- 
mental right  infringed  by  the  legislation  in  question ; 
nor  are  we  able  to  see  that  Congress  can  be  held,  in 
its  enactment,  to  have  abridged  the  freedom  of  the 
press.  The  circulation  of  newspapers  is  not  pro- 
hibited, but  the  Government  declines  itself  to  become 
an  agent  in  the  circulation  of  printed  matter  which 
it  regards  as  injurious  to  the  people." 

In  the  noted  Homer  Case,  which  came  before  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  twice  on  a  peti- 
tion for  habeas  corpus  (143  U.  S.  570),  and  on  an 
indictment  for  abuse  of  the  postal  service  by  send- 
ing a  lottery  letter  and  circular  through  the  mails 
(147  U.  S.  449),  defendant  was  a  Wall  Street  broker, 
who  undertook  to  obtain  in  America  subscriptions 
to  a  loan  by  the  Austrian  government.  The  scheme 
was  peculiar  and  designed  to  be  attractive  and  invit- 
ing to  the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  who  were  to 
be  induced  thereby  to  invest  their  money  in  these 
foreign  securities.  But  the  -Supreme  Court  declared 
it  was  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  lottery  scheme  and 
therefore  was  prohibited  by  our  Postal  Penal  Code. 
To  quote  the  words  of  the  Court,  Austria  "under- 
took to  assist  her  credit  by  an  appeal  to  the  cupidity 
of  those  who  had  money,  and  offered  to  each  holder 
of  a  bond  a  chance  of  obtaining  a  prize  dependent 
upon  the  law  of  chance."  Therefore  the  scheme  was 
a  lottery,  although  promoted  by  a  great  foreign 
empire;  and  no  more  consideration  could  be  given 
to  it  than  to  the  lottery  of  the  state  of  Louisiana. 
So  Homer,  the  Wall  Street  broker,  was  mulcted  in 


26        BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 

a  fine  of  one  hundred  dollars  for  engaging  in  this 
international  lottery. 

The  Code  Is  Authoritative  and  Effectively  En- 
forced. From  these  cases  and  other  similar  ones  it 
may  be  seen  that  the  authority  of  the  United  States 
to  prevent  contamination  of  its  postal  service  by 
the  introduction  of  immoral,  obscene  and  unlawful 
circulars  or  letters  is  unquestioned.  It  is  simply 
the  exercise  of  the  police  power  of  the  sovereign 
in  the  all-important  governmental  function  of  the 
postal  service.  That  which  Uncle  Sam  says  shall 
not  be  carried  through  the  mails  then  must  be  trans- 
ported by  some  kind  of  private  service. 

It  will  not  be  a  difficult  matter,  of  course,  to  ship 
circulars  or  pamphlets  or  advertisements  as  freight 
in  bulk ;  but  the  distribution  of  them  to  individuals 
will  be  found  a  matter  of  no  little  difficulty,  since  no 
branch  or  feature  of  the  postal  service  may  be  used 
for  that  purpose.  Furthermore  the  Postal  Penal 
Code  forbids  any  person  to  establish  any  private 
express  service  for  the  conveyance  of  letters  or  books 
by  regular  trips  or  at  stated  periods.  Under  this 
statute  the  Hussey  Express,  which  maintained  a 
corps  of  messengers  employed  to  collect  letters 
daily  from  its  customers  (who  had  been  provided 
with  private  stamps  sold  beforehand  for  that  pur- 
pose) and  to  take  the  letters,  as  collected,  to  the  cen- 
tral office,  where  they  were  sorted  and  distributed 
to  the  addresses,  was  engaged  in  an  unlawful  postal 
service,  and  one  of  its  carriers  was  convicted  in 
New  York  of  a  breach  of  this  part  of  the  postal 
laws. 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE  27 

PROVISION  AGAINST  OBSTRUCTION  OF  MAIL  SERVICE. 

Another  offense  against  the  postal  service  is  ob- 
structing the  mail  or  any  mail  carrier,  whether  he 
be  on  foot  or  horseback,  in  buggy,  boat  or  car.  This 
offense  may  be  punished  by  imprisonment,  or  fine, 
or  both.  The  cases  upon  this  subject  which  are  re- 
ported are  interesting  and  varied  in  their  character. 
The  earliest  one  to  be  noticed  comes  from  the  state 
of  Kentucky,  wherein  one  Kirby,  a  sheriff  of  Gallatin 
County,  in  1866,  was  indicted,  together  with  his 
posse,  for  going  upon  the  steamboat,  "General 
Buell,"  then  carrying  mail  between  Louisville  and 
Cincinnati,  and  there  arresting  one  Farris,  a  carrier 
of  the  mail,  upon  a  bench  warrant  charging  him  with 
murder  in  the  first  degree ! 

In  these  days  it  would  be  astonishing  that  a  grand 
jury  could  be  empaneled  in  any  part  of  our  coun- 
try who  had  no  better  sense  than  to  indict  an  officer 
for  the  performance  of  his  sworn  public  duty !  But 
the  event  referred  to  occurred  back  in  the  days 
when  sectional  feeling  ran  high,  when  they  were 
passing  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  Bill  and  Civil  Rights 
Bills  and  Military  State  Government  Bills,  and  when 
the  more  radical  members  of  Congress  impeached 
President  Johnson  for  exercising  his  lawful  powers 
and  authority  as  President  of  the  United  States ! 

The  case  was  certified  to  the  Supreme  Court  upon 
the  question  whether  the  arrest,  under  the  circum- 
stances, was  an  obstruction  of  the  mail.  Justice 
Field  delivered  the  opinion  of  the  court  as  follows: 
"  There  can  be  but  one  answer,  in  our  judgment,  to 


28        BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 

the  question  certified  to  us.  The  Act  of  Congress 
which  punishes  the  obstruction  or  retarding  of  the 
passage  of  the  mail  or  of  the  mail  carrier  does  not 
apply  to  a  case  of  temporary  detention  of  the  mail 
caused  by  the  arrest  of  the  carrier  upon  an  indict- 
ment for  murder." 

What  Constitutes  Obstruction? 

The  next  case  was  an  indictment  against  two 
twelve-year-old  boys  who  had  obstructed  the  track 
of  the  Wheeling  Railway  running  along  the  streets 
and  down  the  river  to  Benwood.  It  seems  that  a 
strike  of  laborers  was  on  at  the  time,  and  these  boys, 
in  answer  to  the  demonstrations  of  the  citizens 
against  their  obstructing  the  track,  said:  "We  want 
to  win  the  strike."  To  aid  further  in  accomplishing 
this  purpose,  they  had  thrown  stones  and  clubs  and 
missiles  at  employees  when  they  were  removing  the 
obstructions.  These  boys,  though  but  twelve  years 
old,  were  convicted  because  of  their  intelligent  ex- 
pression of  conditions  and  their  resolution  to  sup- 
port the  workmen  who  were  carrying  on  the  strike. 

The  Debs  Case.  Another  case  in  point  is  one  of 
national  interest,  occurring  twenty  years  ago,  and 
known  as  the  Debs  Case,  in  which  the  petitioner 
Debs  was  represented  by  Judge  Lyman  Trumbull  of 
Chicago,  a  statesman  and  lawyer  of  national  repute, 
and  the  United  States  by  Attorney  General  Olney, 
also  a  lawyer  of  rare  ability  and  distinction.  The 
case  arose  not  upon  an  indictment  or  information, 
but  under  a  bill  in  equity  with  an  injunction  obtained 
by  the  United  States,  upon  petition  of  its  Attorney 


THE  POSTAL  PENAL  CODE  29 

General  to  prevent  the  defendants,  being  a  combina- 
tion and  conspiracy  therefor,  from  obstructing  and 
preventing  the  interstate  transportation  of  persons 
and  property  and  the  carriage  of  the  mails.  The 
strikers  refused  to  obey  the  injunction  and  main- 
tained their  attitude  of  defiance  toward  the  court 
and  the  United  States.  Thereupon,  under  an  order 
to  show  cause  why  they  should  not  be  punished  for 
violation  and  defiance  of  the  injunction,  Debs  and 
his  associates  were  arrested,  and  failing  to  show  any 
sufficient  cause  to  the  contrary,  they  were  sentenced 
to  jail  for  six  months  as  a  punishment  for  their 
defiance  of  the  authority  of  the  court.  They  there- 
upon brought  a  petition  for  habeas  corpus,  alleging 
their  unlawful  arrest  and  confinement,  and  the  mat- 
ter was  considered  by  the  Supreme  Court  after 
elaborate  arguments. 

Jurisdiction  of  Federal  Government  Extends  Over 
Every  Foot  of  Soil.  Mr.  Justice  Brewer  pronounced 
the  opinion  of  the  court  to  the  effect  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  has  jurisdiction  over  every 
foot  of  soil  within  its  territory  and  acts  directly  upon 
every  citizen  within  the  limits  of  its  powers,  which 
include  regulation  of  interstate  commerce  and  trans- 
mission of  the  mails;  that  in  the  exercise  of  those 
powers  the  United  States  may  remove  obstructions 
put  upon  highways,  natural  or  artificial,  to  block 
the  passage  of  interstate  commerce  or  the  carrying 
of  the  mails;  and  that,  consequently,  the  court  had 
the  right  to  punish  those  who,  in  disobedience  of  its 
power  and  defiance  of  its  process,  undertook  to  stop 
or  obstruct  the  carriage  of  the  mails. 


30        BLACKSTONE  LEGAL  TRAINING  LECTURE 


CONCLUSION. 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  Talk  to  give  all 
the  regulations  of  the  Post  Office  Department  in 
relation  to  the  mails.  The  Code  provisions  and  other 
department  rules  as  to  the  manner  in  which  any  par- 
ticular matter  must  be  shipped,  also  full  information 
concerning  any  questions  confronting  any  individual, 
can  easily  be  secured  by  application  to  postmasters 
or  their  assistants.  Nor  is  it  intended  to  assist  in 
any  way  those  who  may  desire  to  trespass  as  far  as 
possible  without  being  convicted. 

It  has,  howrever,  been  attempted  to  discuss  the 
authority  of  the  Federal  Government  over  the  mail 
service,  and  the  penal  provisions  which  have  been 
passed  in  regard  to  this  service,  and  how  these  are 
construed  and  enforced.  The  cases  cited  point  out 
the  principal  matters  to  keep  in  mind,  such  as:  the 
danger  of  interfering  with  the  mails  during  strikes 
and  labor  disturbances,  the  inadvisability  of  sending 
duns  on  postal  cards,  the  care  which  must  be  exer- 
cised not  to  express  one's  opinion  too  freely  through 
the  mails,  and  the  absolute  prohibition  against  post- 
ing anything  of  an  immoral  nature  even  under  seal. 

These  are  rules  which  it  is  evident  are  usually 
very  poorly  understood.  A  knowledge  of  them  is 
imperative  to  a  proper  compliance  with  the  Postal 
Penal  Code,  and  to  avoidance  of  too  intimate  asso- 
ciation with  Federal  marshals  and  their  deputies. 


\y*y  /<>/•«/§ 

I    GAYlAMOUNflT" 
'.PAMPHLET  BINDER 

Syracuse,  N.Y.   I 
Stockton,  Calif.  I 


